Naveen banks on development for hat-trick

With development as his battle-cry, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is seeking to register a hat-trick this time from the Hinjili assembly constituency. The only difference this time is that his erstwhile opponents are by his side.

Former Congress leader Udayanath Nayak, who was his rival on the previous two occasions, is now campaigning for Patnaik who has nurtured the constituency well. An estimated Rs 190 crore has been spent in this constituency, comprising the Hinjili and Sheragada blocks of Ganjam district, for infrastructure development during the last five years, a booklet distributed by the ruling BJD, claimed.

"We have almost all infrastructure like road, water, power, mobile phones and health care facilities as it's the Chief Minister's constituency and we are also proud of sending him to assembly from here," Nibedita Pradhan, Sarpanch of Takarada panchayat under Shergada block, said.

Patnaik has so far visited Hinjili, which forms a segment of Aska Lok Sabha constituency, only once when he came to file his nomination papers.

In his absence, the green BJD flags have been fluttering everywhere as party campaigners working round-the-clock to ensure their leader's victory. 

"The only point of interest here is the winning margin of Naveen babu", said Ajay Moharana, a resident of Hinjili town.

The chief minister's opponent this time has been Raghab Parida, a former minister and Congress aspirant, who has made law and order an issue in this election.

Parida's son, Sudarshan, a BJD worker, was shot dead allegedly by miscreants a few months ago at nearby Aska. The Congress leader had demanded a CBI inquiry into the killing.

The same issue is being highlighted by another candidate, Laxminarayan Panda, popularly known as Laxmi Baba, who was an associate of the slain VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati, whose killing sparked riots in Kandhamal district last August. Panda accused Naveen's government of 'failing' to nab the culprits behind the Swami's murder.

"Hinjili's 1.9 lakh voters will give Naveen a fitting reply", he averred.

Besides Parida and Panda, there were three other nominees in the fray including BJP's Debananda Mohapatra.

Patnaik had entered the scene in 1997 when he contested and won the byelection from the Aska Lok Sabha seat on a Janata Dal ticket following the demise of his father and legendary leader Biju Patnaik.